Seeking Member Volunteers

Two (2) Volunteers for Horror University The Horror University team needs two Assistant Coordinators to work with the Coordinators in planning, scheduling, and running Horror University Online and Horror University at StokerCon. The work will include gathering and compiling information from instructors about their workshops, such as images and support materials to set up classes. Assistant Coordinators may also help with running actual workshops online or in-person as needed. The time commitment will be cyclical, requiring two to three hours per week for up to four weeks during the scheduling phase and one to two hours a week during a…

Dragon’s Lair Post #1 : Hello

For those that don’t know me, I am your friendly neighborhood winged beast, quietly sleeping on a hoard of jewels, gold, and other assorted treasures far off in some dark mountainous place. Not really, but as your HWA Treasurer, it’s cool to think so, right? I want to be the first to welcome you all to the Dragon’s Lair, a blog dedicated to candid conversations about the business of the Horror Writers Association where I’ll talk about everything from fundraising ideas, networking, branding, you name it! There will also be interviews from industry professionals and authors. It is my hope…

New Bram Stoker Awards® Category: Superior Achievement in Middle-Grade Novel

The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is proud to announce the addition of a brand new category in the Bram Stoker Awards®: Superior Achievement in a Middle-Grade Novel. For purposes of this Award, Middle-Grade novels are defined as novels (see clause IVe) intended for the age group 8-13 with word length beginning at 25,000 words. A Middle-Grade novel that is deemed to be a ‘First Novel’ according to Rule IVf may qualify for consideration in the ‘First Novel’ category (see Rule IVr) if the author insists in writing that the work be considered for ‘First Novel’ rather than ‘Middle-Grade' novel; otherwise,…

HWA Poetry Showcase Volume VIII Now Available!

The Horror Writers Associations presents their eighth annual Poetry Showcase, featuring the best in never-before-published dark verse. Edited by Stephanie M. Wytovich with judges Angela Yurkio Smith and Sara Tantlinger, this year features the first Crystal Lake Poetry Contest winner, poems from Cynthia Pelayo, Lindy Ryan, Sarah Reed, Alicia Hilon, Corrinne DeWinter, Sumiko Saulson, Querus Abuttu, Carina Bissett, Lee Murray and many more poems from the talented members of the Horror Writers Association. Cover artwork by Robert Cabeen. Now Available in Print and on Kindle

Interview with Winner of the Rocky Wood Scholarship 2018

Winner of the HWA’s ROCKY WOOD SCHOLARSHIP in 2018, Joe Maddrey has recently released the fruit of those labors with the release of Adapting Stephen King Volume I: Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot and The Shining from Novel to Screenplay from McFarland press. What inspired you to tackle such an interesting topic? In a way, this book was an offshoot of two of my previous books. The first one was a biography of Stephen King, for which I read all of King’s published works. (Everyone says they’ve read all of King’s books… but they’re usually lying. I even made it through The…

HWA ANNOUNCES SUMMER SCARES READING PROGRAM 2022

Spokesperson and Timeline The Horror Writers Association (HWA), in partnership with United for Libraries, Book Riot, and Booklist, is proud to announce the fourth annual Summer Scares Reading Program. Summer Scares is a reading program that provides libraries and schools with an annual list of recommended horror titles for adult, young adult (teen), and middle grade readers. It introduces readers and librarians to new authors and helps start conversations extending beyond the books from each list and promote reading for years to come. Summer Scares is proud to announce their 2022 spokesperson as author Alma Katsu: "I'm thrilled to be…

Letter from the Disney Must Pay Joint Task Force

Dear Members, In April 2021, we let you know about a contract issue with Disney that affected multiple authors across different writer organizations. We’ve made some progress and a few authors have been paid. Unfortunately, we’ve also uncovered more concerning issues in the process. We still need your help to raise awareness of the #DisneyMustPay campaign, which has yet to be resolved. Authors may still be missing royalty statements or checks across a wide range of properties in prose, comics, and graphic novels. As of today, our list is incomplete and only based on properties and/or publishers for which we…

The Seers Table November 2021

Kate Maruyama, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community   Linda D. Addison introduces: Erica Ciko Campbell was obsessed with short fiction all her life, and was lucky enough to start reading for the pro SFF magazine Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores in June 2019. From here, her love of short fiction reached twisted new apexes and took over her life, so she reached out to the creators of Novel Noctule literary horror magazine to take it even farther. She started there as a Trainee Editor in October of 2020, and was promoted to the Flying Fox Flash Editor in February 2021. The stars were…

Final Frame Horror Short Film Competition Special Viewing

PRE-ORDER FOR FREE NOW! Save your seat! Limited capacity screening! For six years, the Final Frame Horror Short Film Competition has unleashed a host of terrors upon our unsuspecting StokerCon audiences. Before we embark on our seventh edition, we would like to invite our members to enter the darkness once more to experience some of our very best and most memorable nightmares. For 24 hours, Saturday, November 6th at 8pm EST to Sunday, November 7th at 8pm EST, The Best of Final Frame, will be available FOR FREE to all StokerCon members worldwide. This special screening will include a suggested…
SALE! Special Ad Rate Extended for the HWA Newsletter

SALE! Special Ad Rate Extended for the HWA Newsletter

The HWA Newsletter is offering a special rate on full-page ads for the rest of 2021! All issues are jam-packed with lots of goodies (columns, special articles, puzzles, photos, artwork, poems), so you don’t want to miss out on advertising in it! Full Page Ad 650px wide by any height – only $25! The ad deadline for this sale is December 31, 2021. Order yours today!

Halloween Haunts: Real Life Halloween Candymen by Sumiko Saulson

If you have read Clive Barker’s “Forbidden” or seen either of the Candyman movies, you know that one of gut-wrenching images in the story is that of razorblades buried in candy. Director Nia DaCosta uses that imagery to particularly disturbing effect in Candyman (2021), the body horror special effects masterpiece that earned her a place in history as the first Black woman director of a #1 Box Office smash. The movie has impressive horror writing chops. DaCosta co-wrote it with Win Rosenfeld and two-time Bram Stoker Award winner Jordan Peele, who picked up the award for Best Screenplay in 2017…

Halloween Haunts: Full Circle Halloween by Yvonne Navarro

When I was a kid... You know what the first thought that popped into my head was when I typed that? “Get off my lawn!” Which is not at all where I want this to go. In Chicago, in the 1960s and 1970s—there, I’ve dated myself and so what—kids used to go trick-or-treating pretty much fearless. Late into the night, too—I remember knocking on doors at close to ten p.m. (and yeah, the adults who opened were pretty grumpy). The year to year weather was varied: if Halloween fell on a Saturday or Sunday, you could be laughing and running…

Halloween Haunts: The October Blues by Amaris J. Gagnon

October was here and Halloween was right around the corner. Fall time was my favorite season because I loved all things spooky and horror. I was fourteen and right at the edge of when kids stop going trick or treating. As an eighth-grader, I noticed my friends wanting to wear more revealing costumes. I guess it wasn’t cool to dress up as vampires or ghosts anymore. The more cleavage the better and the higher you could roll up your skirt the more Myspace comments you got. Things were tough at home. My mother had lost her job and my father’s…

Halloween Haunts: Halloween Goal by Sèphera Girón

Halloween is always a fun time for horror lovers whether you’re a creator or a consumer or both. This Halloween may be a bit different where you are because many parts of the world are still in a pandemic or lockdown or just coming out of one and so on. And of course, many parts of the world don’t celebrate Halloween. This Halloween, try doing some self-care in-between all the festivities, if you are able to get to any. Halloween night instead of being sad you still can’t go clubbing or dancing or attend a giant Halloween party or even…

Halloween Haunts: Beneath the Tortured Willow by Lee Murray, Geneve Flynn, Angela Yuriko Smith, and Christina Sng

On the edge of the village, beneath the gravid leaves of a tortured willow, I gather with my sisters, Geneve Flynn, Angela Yuriko Smith, and Christina Sng, on the eve of Halloween. When the village is quiet, its inhabitants slumbering in their beds, I stoke our campfire with a stick, stirring up sparks in the darkness. “Shall we begin?” I whisper. My sisters nod, shuffling closer to the fire. “I have a ghost story to tell you,” Angela says. “I was about 12 years old, and my family was moving from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Bethesda, Maryland. As all this moving…

Halloween Haunts: Writing Horror When You’ve Lived in a Haunted a House by Diana Rodriguez Wallach

The first house I ever owned was haunted. I don’t say this to be dramatic; it’s simple truth. It was a brick “trinity-style” town home in Center City Philadelphia that was built in 1832. It still had its original floorboards and windows, there was a fireplace in every room, and the spot where the old outhouse used to be caved in while we lived there. Many people died in that house. And the ghosts who remained had an affinity for classical music. It was 2004 when we moved in. We were planning our wedding, and I had purchased a CD…

Halloween Haunts: A TIC-TACKING RITE OF PASSAGE by A.G. Mock

It was 1978—Friday, October 13th to be precise—when I was finally old enough to stay home alone while my parents went out to dinner and a movie. Or more likely, while they went disco dancing with my aunt and uncle who lived next door. You see, the four had been practicing their grooviest dance moves in the basement every Wednesday for months, the beat of “Night Fever” or “Jive Talkin’” barely stifled by the closed door. This would also be accompanied by the sound of poorly executed dance steps scuffing awkwardly across the unfinished cement floor. (I once made the…

Halloween Haunts: Magic Pumpkins by Chris DiLeo

My father brought in the victims, two at a time, extra large and heavy. Pumpkins. Soon-to-be jack-o’-lanterns. He was an encyclopedia editor, a quiet man who worked tediously at his desk, books stacked around him in fortress walls, a green banker’s lamp pooling light. He was equally methodical and tedious when carving pumpkins. He worked slowly, laboriously, hands careful, eyes focused behind his bifocals. He penciled faces on the pumpkins, used a ruler to make the isosceles triangle eyes and nose and the teeth, too, of course. When he took up the large carving knife, the same one used to…

Halloween Haunts: PENNYWISE SMILES FROM MY CLASSROOM WALL by Evan Baughfman

I lead children into houses of horror. I advise them against touching monkeys’ paws. But I urge them to listen to heartbeats thump-thump-thumping beneath the floor. I’ve taught middle school students for sixteen years now, and I love diving into tales of the macabre with them. From what I can tell, they also enjoy our treks into darkness. Eighth-graders seem eager to consume the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, in particular. Kids nowhere near old enough to imbibe Amontillado drink in the dread that’s developing inside Poe’s musty Italian catacombs. Heck, a malformed vulture’s eye is probably sometimes more palatable…